Maintaining Healthy Weight Among Children

BY: Daniele Iannarone

Issue 22

Thursday, March 23, 2017

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According
to Statistics Canada, one in five Canadians was considered to be overweight in
2014, a 15% increase from 2003. Among
children, statistics are even worse, with one of every three children in this
country being overweight. Of
course, even though being overweight is more prevalent than being underweight,
it’s important not to discount the seriousness of eating disorders such as
anorexia and bulimia, which can effect both girls and boys equally.

Phillip
Lafave, Athletic Director and Exercise Science Teacher at Montreal’s Loyola
High School, points out that the initial sign that a child or teenager is
starting to experience weight problems is when they start lacking energy while
performing routine tasks like taking a walk or climbing the stairs.

Lafave
says that a combination of an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise are usually
what contribute to unhealthy weight gain.
A huge factor that often goes forgotten, however, is stress, and Lafave
points out that people often deal with stress by either overeating or not
eating enough.

Lafave
says that lots of young families lead very busy and stressful lives, and often
have little time for meals, so their solution is to pick the quick option,
which is often fast-food. An easy
solution for parents to rely less on fast-food is to set aside a few hours per
week to plan and prepare healthy meals for the following days. “It’s a thing that parents and kids can
do together and talk about the way that they eat,” he says, adding that it also
greatly reduces stress for everyone, since all the meals are already prepared
and ready to eat.

Lafave
also reminds parents that they are role models for their children, and children
learn most about food at home, so if parents make it a point to eat healthy and
exercise often, children will most likely follow suit, thus avoiding weight
problems. In this case, doing
exercise does not necessarily mean going to the gym; it can simply mean
encouraging activity as a family, such as walking, skating, cycling, etc.

Lafave
points out a shift in the trend of health awareness nowadays as opposed to ten
years ago. He says that while
girls have always been self-conscious about the way they look, this has now
become more popular among young males, who are much more conscious about what
they’re eating than ever before. “Kids
are learning about nutrition and ways to help them lose weight and to gain mass
the natural way,” he says.

Lafave
does not deny, however, that students who are either overweight or underweight
do face incredible challenges in terms of their own self-esteem and bullying,
noting that bullying is always prevalent and contributes to children with
weight problems feeling self-conscious about themselves.

According
to Lafave, the best way for parents who want to have this conversation with
their children is to be direct. Trust
needs to be established between parents and children at a young age, and along
with trust comes an open dialogue between them. When parents do notice their children struggling with their
diets, being overly sedentary, or even overstressing, it’s time to step in and
be direct with them. Parents and
children should discuss what’s going on and solve the problem together, thus
being able to outline concrete steps about how to lead a healthier lifestyle.

Lafave
points out that, if not their parents, children should at least talk to someone
they can trust about these issues, and that he has been approached by students
before. “It can be delicate,” he
admits. “But from my experience,
the student and the parents were thankful at the end of it all.”

Daniele Iannarone | Author

Daniele
Iannarone is a 20-year old journalism student at Concordia University. He
is particularly interested in sports journalism, and covers the Concordia
Stingers hockey team for The Link, the school newspaper. He
speaks four languages fluently; English, French, Italian and Spanish.